HYDERSEEK, AK 2009

SPOT Trip Map

2009-06-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

I thought you might enjoy a trip map from my SPOT messenger. The map is interactive and you can zoom in and out on the map.

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Epilogue

2009-06-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

Now that I've been back for a week, I'd like to make some final comments about the trip before I close it out.

TRAVELLING COMPANIONS

We had a great time riding together. We did a pace that allowed us to take lots of pictures (something in excess of 4,000 between the 4 of us). The game of bear bingo was really fun and allowed each of us to lead for some portion of the the ride.

WEATHER

The weather was simply fabulous! It was over 75 degrees on most days and was in the 80's on several days. It was hard to believe that I would don my vented clothing and ride to the Yukon, Alaska and beyond.

CRITTERS

We were able to see quite a number of bears, moose, bison, goats, caribou, one ugly deer and a number of pretty ones, one squirrel, some undocumented foxes, & a lynx or bobcat. The critters generally didn't want to have anything to do with us with the exception of the deer. I would have liked to see a bull moose.

FUNNIEST STORY

Hands down, the fox and 3 grizzlies account on day 5 remains as the most memorable story of the trip.

MOST SCENIC ROAD

The Haines Highway, hands down. Yukon 8 between Jakes Corner and Carcross was second and the Frazier River Canyon road in BC came in 3rd. Of honorable mention was the last 15 miles of the road into Skagway.

KNARLIEST ROAD

The 1 mile bridge repair between Liard River and Ft. Nelson. Second place was the marble sized gravel on the ALCAN highway west of Watson Lake.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

For me the biggest surprise was the sheer quantity of pavement. We only had about 50 miles of gravel in over 4,000 miles of riding. The second biggest surprise was the weather that I noted above. In third place was the Woodlands Hotel manager's kindness in putting us up in the conference room when there was no room in the inn.

ROUTING

Neil did a fabulous job of creating the route and giving us very doable daily distances to ride. Doing the Cassiar Highway for the route up, the Skagway/Haines/Whitehorse loop and the ALCAN highway for the return was an excellent routing.

GEAR

My FirstGear Kilamanjaro vented jacket and Tourmaster Convertible pants worked very well as did my vented gloves. In the few instances of rain showers, the Frogg Toggs and the Aerostitch Lobster Claw gloves performed well. My Cruiserworks boots kept my feet dry and my riding socks from SoundRider.com worked very well.

TECHNOLOGY

Using the satellite messenging service (SPOT) was possibly the best piece of technology we brought along. It allowed those at home to follow our every move (that can be bad as well)!

Having SKYPE to phone home was really special. SKYPE is an internet based telephone service that provides inexpensive calls throughout the world. WIFI was readily available throughout the ride.

The GPS' came in 3rd as the roads are pretty predictable and there really aren't a lot of options. It was good, however, to save the track and judge riding distances.

I used my new www.bikeMP3.com player for the first long ride. It is a device that plugs into the GL1800's audio system and allows one to play music from SD cards through the Wing's audio system. It worked flawless. My only drawback was that I didn't load enough music on it.

For me, I really liked my XM Satellite Radio when we were not in canyons or in the far north. During the ride south I especially liked listening to the coverage of Music Fest in Nashville.

BIGGEST ANNOYANCE

The lack of card readers at gasoline pumps in much of BC coupled with a legal requirement to walk in and give them a credit card before pumping was a huge annoyance.

WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENT ON A FUTURE RIDE?

I'd really like to take my wife with me and take a bit more time to visit some of the museums that we didn't have time to visit. Our Escapade trailer would come with us. The balance of camping and motelling it was perfect. I'd also extend the trip to include at least Anchorage, Homer, Portage, Seward, and the Kenai Peninsula. Adding Fairbanks would be a real treat. I'd also bring a bit more Canadian currency. I'd bring my small camera tripod to make it easier to do self pictures.

WHAT WOULDN'T I TAKE ON A FUTURE RIDE TO ALASKA?

I'd leave my thermos bottle behind along with my thermals. I'd probably leave one of my 4 pairs of gloves behind.

MOST IMPORTANT THOUGHT

Live the dream. I'd been seriously dreaming about riding to Alaska for 3 plus years. There's really something about living the dream that makes it very special. To do it with Neil, Tom, and Tim2 made it extra special. Thanks for the memories, guys.

Day 11 - Final Run from 100 Mile House to Home

2009-06-13T20:08:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe but our great Alaskan / Yukon adventure came to a close today with our safe arrival at home. I'm composing this on my home computer which is considerably easier than the little netbook I packed with me. But before that occurred we had a terrific 389 mile ride south from 100 Mile House.

After a very good night's sleep at the Red Coach Inn, we departed 100 Mile House at just after 7am. We fell into our regular routine of Bear Bingo, stops every 50 miles; and for the whole day only saw one deer in the early morning and one eagle after we arrived back in the states.

At one of our rest stops in Clinton, BC, there was a nice sculpture of a cowboy bathing and a little rubber ducky with him.

Tim2 remembered that he had acquired 4 rubber duckies at a trade show (2 yellow and 2 red), so we all installed them on our radio antennas. Of course Tom led us in a chorus or two of the Rubber Duckie song.

We took on fuel at Cache Creek and noted that the terrain had changed dramatically from the alpine forests we were used to to dry sagebrush.

There was also a major car show just beginning, so we were treated with all sorts of cool custom cars coming towards us much like several days ago outside of Watson Lake.

The next part of the ride was one of the real treats: Riding down the Thompson and Frazier River Canyons. Traffic was light and Tom rolled on the throttle.

Not another waterfall:

One of our goals was to stop at the Hells Gate Tram on the Frazier River which we did and rode the tram to the bottom, took pictures, had a nice lunch (2 salmon burgers and two regular burgers).

While down there a fellow approached us and complimented us on our bikes. He was riding a GL1800 like 3 of us, but his had a turbo installed on it. Here are a few pictures of that bike.

Then it was more riding down the canyon and through many tunnels.

There were also lots of rapids and water movement.

We also observed lots of bikers out for their Saturday ride, and little did they know our grizzled pack of 4 had just returned from The Great Land.

Arriving at the US Border around 2pm, we cleared customs and took a break to call our respective loved ones.

And we got our "ducks in a row" if you know what I mean.

We then decided to not ride the super slab home; rather take WA9 south. While it was twisty, some traffic tended to hold us up. But we stuck with it and eventually connected with WA522 and then I405, I90 and our eventual destination of the Mercer Island Lid Park for a little end of ride celebration. My wife, Angela, and Tim2's wife, Cindy, showed up to photograph us coming in and that was very special and moving. After taking a few pictures to commemorate the end, we enjoyed some cold drinks that Cindy had brought.

Neil, Tom, and I then rode south on 405 to our respective homes.

It was a great 10 nights and 11 days with 4 friends. We all learned more about each other, worked through the challenges of each of us being "wired" differently, appreciated each person's contribution to the ride, and even dreamed about doing something in the future. Who would have thought that I could don mesh vented clothing in Seattle and ride to Alaska, BC, and the Yukon and be totally comfortable. I didn't wear my thermals or electric clothing that I brought.

And now to one of the last steps:

But that will have to wait for another day.

I'll post an epilogue in a day or so before signing off this blog. Suffice it to say, it was a fabulous trip, a dream of mine to be able to visit my native state on the 50th Anniversary of statehood. Doing it with 3 friends using our respective motorcycles was just icing on the cake. Like we said many times during the trip, "We're living the dream!" We just didn't stop with the dream. I would encourage you to live your own dream whatever that may be.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about a ride of this sort.

Day 10 - Chetwyn to 100 Mile House

2009-06-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

We had an early morning departure at 6:50 (10 minutes before helmet time). It was a heavy dew overnight so our tenting gear is a bit damp. We got to experience a bobbed cat.

Heading down CA97 we launched into our game of Bear Bingo. Soon we spotted 3 deer and later on we scored a great moose encounter.

The moose was especially curious towards Neil which was a great disappointment to Tom (you'll have to get that story directly from Tom as it won't be on the blog). After taking a copious quantity of pictures, it's was Tom's turn to lead and not over 1/4 mile later we encountered a bear.

Tom has really developed a new calling as our official announcer of Bear Bingo. It's really really funny to hear him go into announcer mode. After seeing the bear, we didn't see any further critters for the day.

We also encountered a very long coal train. Here's a photograph of one of the cars.

For the rest of the day, it was pretty much a ride to put on miles and get us closer to home. The horses are smelling the barn.

At Quesnel we stopped at the park to take some photos of the artifacts.

Here I am on the old bridge over the Quesnel River.

At our last gas stop in Williams Lake there was a large carved cowboy and a VERY large wheel chair.

We did take a break at a nice little roadside chocolate stand and at least one of our group decided it was time for a short siesta.

Later we encountered the threat of rain and we elected to don our rain gear which turned out to only be needed for a few miles.

While we thought we would camp at Cache Creek, we decided to get a motel at 100 mile house and enjoy a nice rest, hot tub, and pool. This was all for about $40 each. A nice dinner was enjoyed by all followed by a trip to DQ for a chocolate dipped ice cream cone.

Tomorrow is the push home with a stop at a very special place in the Frazier River Canyon. We're anxious to see the effects of all the water we've seen upstream of the canyon now flowing through the canyon.

Stay tuned.

Some of you may be asking yourself how many miles per day are we riding? We have been generally getting at least 300 plus miles per day and many days have been 400 miles. We stop every 50 miles for a stretch break and more often if needed. The Wings are performing flawlessly and our gas range is around 200 miles for the 1500 and 270 for the 1800's. The bear bingo game has really broken up the monotony of just riding in formation for these many miles which will be well beyond 4,000 for those of us in Seattle and much more for Neil who still needs to ride to Arizona.

Day 9 - Riding the ALCAN to Mile 0

2009-06-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

This morning at 7am we departed in the rain from Ft. Nelson with a goal of somewhere past Dawson Creek, the start of the Alcan. Today's ride was filled with lots of long, long straight stretches.

Our game of "Bear Bingo" didn't yield a single hit until 99.9 miles into the day's ride. After that it was a very sparse critter count.

We stopped a Milepost 101 on the original ALCAN for fuel and decided to eat there. They have homemade sandwitches on scrumptuous homemade bread. We then headed out once again on long fairly boring roads. Arriving in Ft. Nelson, we pulled into a Catholic church parking lot and took a 20 minute or so siesta. It was very refreshing.

We came across the only remaining serviceable bridge from the original ALCAN at Kiskatinaw. Besides being a wooden bridge, it has a 9 degree curve in it.

It's clearly marked off the present Alcan and worth the ride down to see and photograph.

Pressing on the Dawson Creek, we found the marking point for the start of the ALCAN highway. We took a few pictures of it and acquired pins that say we drove the ALCAN and they have a picture of a GL1800 Gold Wing like mine on it.

From there we continued on to Chetwyn with a slight scare at the possibility of rain showers, so we Frogg Togged up. At Chetwyn we refueled and found a camping spot at the West Wynn motel and RV park where I'm composing this.

All but Neil went in to town to see the Woodcarving Championships that were being held and we took a few pictures.

We're now around 800 miles from home and are beginning to smell the barn. We're all getting anxious to see our loved ones, but there's a part of me that wants to turn around and head on back up with all of the motorcycles we've been seeing heading north.

Day 8 - Teslin to Ft. Nelson

2009-06-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

Everyone strap on your adventure boots for today's blog is going to be unlike any that I've experienced.

We camped the night at Teslin, Yukon Territories at the Yukon Motel. The campsite was literally 3 feet from the water's edge and about 6" higher than the lake level, but woke up to rain. We decided to delay our departure and have breakfast at the Motel as it opened at 7am. Mistake. We were there at 7am and I had a feeling that it wasn't going to go well when the waitress wiped Neil's fork off with her fingers. Then it went from bad to worse. Every order was wrong and the hash browns weren't even cooked. Sorry there's no picture of those bad boys.

We headed on out for Watson Lake and that part of the trip was pretty uneventful except that we began seeing vintage British touring cars from the 30's, 40's and 50's. It was way cool to see them heading north. Arriving in Watson Lake, we noted that the Cassiar Highway was closed due to a culvert washout (fortunately we made it through that area several days ago. We refueled the bikes and grabbed a quick burger, and took pictures of Yukon animals so that we would at least have some pictures of the animals we weren't seeing. We enjoyed a great laugh over that one. Neil and I also picked up an appropriate bumper sticker with wording to the effect, "Yukon mosquitoes are not single, they are all married and have large families." Is that ever true! Here's a UNIMOG that refueled with us. I've always thought they looked pretty cool.

Leaving Watson Lake we started playing "Bear or Critter Bingo" once again. We started seeing bears along side the highway and the road was really good. By the way, Tom became a pretty fair announcer to our little game.

However, the smoke was getting worse and worse from a forest fire of some type. Then we rode by an area that was burning along side the road. We stopped for some pictures, but we were buzzed by a helicopter that flashed lights at us to get out of there.

Just as we arrived at Llaird Hot Springs, they closed the road behind us. So we motored on to the Northern Rocky Lodge for refueling (and very poor customer service). Just after refueling, we saw a couple of small herds of mountain sheep and watched one come down a 75% rocky slope to the edge. It was impressive.

Riding on, we started to see a weather change, so we stopped to don our raingear. Good thing we did as we rode through a hailstorm with near zero visibility. Fortunately we did ride out of it to then encounter a very nasty road construction project that presented some harrowing riding on a Wing. Leaving that challenge we went back into Bear Bingo mode and proceeded to see several bears including one that just wouldn't leave its spot along side the road. It was then only a 45 minute ride into Ft. Nelson.

Arriving in town, it was packed for two reasons: the road was closed going north because of the fire and the local oil plant was shut down for a tri-annual inspection and all the workers were in Ft. Nelson. Not good news for getting a room. We stopped along a frontage road and a couple of ladies (Judy in particular) tried calling B&B's for us which was a kind gesture. But we really were blessed when David Moore the manager of the local hotel, Woodland Inn, pulled up and said he was a motorcycle enthusiast and were we looking for a room. His hotel was full but he had a meeting room and 4 hide-a-beds available and would we like it. We didn't hesitate and said "YES!". He called ahead and arranged for Yvonne to receive us which she did.

Below is a picture of our accommodations. Nice and cozy and it's the first time we've slept in a conference room!

Our total miles for the day were about 487. We experienced a forest fire up close and personal. We saw 2 new species of critters in 2 1/2 rounds of "Bear Bingo". We rode the knarly roads. We experienced some of the best in human kindness. And we slept in a conference room. Yes, we're living the dream!

Day 6 - Nugget City to Skagway

2009-06-09T22:31:00.001-07:00

Up in the Yukon, the sun is pretty much up 23 hours a day now. Below is a picture taken at 4:30am with no flash.

It was an early rise at 4:30am for a 6am departure up Yukon 1 with a final destination of Skagway, Alaska. It seems strange to say "We are riding down to Alaska", but that's truly what we were doing.

Much of the day was spent slogging it out on long paved sections with big sweepers and BIG scenery. There were a few gravel sections, but nothing we couldn't handle. We had one confirmed moose sighting, one eagle sighting and an unconfirmed wolf or cyote sighting. Leaving highway 1, we took CA 8 from Jake's Crossing to Caircross (a fabulous road). We then rode CA 2 back into BC and eventually Alaska. The temperatures were much more moderate today and became quite chilly coming over the pass.

Arriving at the "Welcome to Alaska" sign, there were a number of foreign tourists from the cruise ships, and they were immediately enamored with Tim's Gold Wing. They immediately forgot about the fact that they were in Alaska and it was all about getting their pictures taken with the Wing. Tim graciously obliged.

We had several such encounters as we made our way down the mountain and finally crossed back into Alaska once again. Here's a picture of a cool bridge just before border check station.

In Skagway, we first went to the ferry terminal and bought our passage for the Tuesday 7am sailing, We noted there were 3 cruise ships in port today (9,000) tourists in a town of probably less than a couple thousand people. We saw a schedule and 5 ships are due tomorrow which will probably be 15,000 people. Then we found rooms at the Sargeant Preston motel (very friendly), and walked around Skagway, took lots of pictures including some of a couple of Welsh ladies who were thrilled to have their pictures taken. We also watched the departure of the 4:30 train that goes up the grade to the mine area ($108) and we watched the arrival of the Alaska State Ferry Columbia.

Eventually we ended up at the Starfire restaurant for some good Thai food for the Tim's, a GIANT burrito for Tom, and a fish platter for Neil. Neil reported that Rich and Dave from Minnesota (Tim's internet buddies from Sidestandup.com) made it to Skagway and were planning to take the ferry as well. Neil and Tom then went out to find some grizzly bears that had been reported, while the Tim's decided to head back to the motel for an early bedtime.

Tomorrow we take the ferry to Haines and then plan to ride north on Yukon 3 and east to Whitehorse and someplace east before Watson Lake.

Day 7 - Skagway to Haines to Teslin

2009-06-09T09:17:00.001-07:00

Today's ride was scheduled to be full of variety and it did not disappoint us.

Our day started out very early in Skagway when we had to be in the ferry line at 5:45am.

Here's a few shots of downtown Skagway before 15,000 tourists hit the beach.

I was the first one there and enjoyed seeing the cruise boats start to come in and I talked with other passengers and took their photos. Soon Tim2 arrived and he was followed by Neil and Tom as well as Dave and Rich who we met at the Hyder rally. It turned out that they took up my challenge to do the Skagway/Haines/Whitehorse loop.

Here's our little group just before boarding the ferry.

Here's the Malaspina who would serve as our trusty ferry for an hour. While this ferry is part of the original fleet, it's in really good repair (if appearances mean anything).

Even the GPS knows that we are taking the ferry.

Upon boarding we were given rail locations and got to tie down (while in retrospect it wasn't necessary).

Here's our group tied down. The ferry wasn't filled at all.

Once one leaves the car deck, one can't return until the ferry docks. So I took advantage of eating breakfast and we took yet another group shot. It was very scenic sailing down the fjord.

Upon arrival in Haines, they throw out a small line which is used to retrieve the larger line. I thought it pretty cool to catch the coil in the line being thrown.

To give some perspective of the size of the entry/exit door, see the motorhome about to pass through the exit door. The owner of this motorhome is from North Carolina and it's a permanent residence. He was very talkative and had been to Alaska many times.

Leaving the ferry we were welcomed to Alaska (even though we had never left) and took a little five mile detour to see if we could find some bears. We weren't successful, so we turned around and rode into Haines for a refueling stop. Dave and Rich said their goodbyes as they were running a faster pace than us and wanted to make it to Watson Lake that night.

We then started riding the Haines Highway with a goal of reaching the Haines Junction as our next gas stop. We rode along crossing first into British Columbia and then into the Yukon Territories. In my humble opinion, this stretch of road was among the most scenic I have ridden on in America or Canada. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. Mt. Logan was on our left (2nd highest peak in North America, and the road just went on and on with new mountain ranges around each corner.

We took lunch at Million Dollar Falls. This is not a bad view from my lunch table.

Here's Tom in front of the rushing water at the falls.

After lunch, it was more riding the Haines Highway. Tough duty, but somebody had to do it.

We took on fuel at the Haines Junction and then headed for Whitehorse where the goal was to see the Klondike paddlewheel boat. We arrived just as the last tour had departed but the staff allowed us to follow the lady who was closing up the boat. It was like getting a personal tour. Here are pictures from that tour. It was a very cool old boat and it was neat to get down in the bowels and see the restoration work that had been done.

After touring the Klondike, we went to Boston Pizza for an early dinner as we still wanted to ride to Teslin to camp for the night by the "singing bridge". We also took on bike fuel using the "green handle".

It took all my willpower to use a green handle as that normally means diesel.

Crossing over the might Yukon River was a memorable experience. The Yukon is one of the few rivers that flow north into the Arctic Ocean.

Arriving in Teslin, we set up camp for the night.

I was able to use SKYPE to call my wife and while I was online I saw that a friend who's in Belgium was online, so I SKYPED him and we encouraged each other with a 15 minute telephone call (Yukon to Belgium).

It was a great day for riding. The Haines Highway is simply breathtaking. The ferry ride was nice. The visit to the Klondike was memorable. Yes, we're living the dream. And we did a nice 392 miles.

Little did we know that we would experience the worst meal of the trip in the morning.

Stay tuned.

2009-06-09T08:04:00.001-07:00

Departing Skagway on the Malispina ferry for Haines.

2009-06-08T14:20:00.001-07:00

Arrived in Skagway, AK; got a ferry ticket for tomorrow's 7am sailling. More on the blog tonight.

Day 5 - Hyder to Watson Lake or Bear Bingo

2009-06-07T22:49:00.000-07:00

This morning at 6am we headed out of Hyder for Watson Lake some 400 miles up the Cassiar Highway. Our game today was to play "Bear Bingo". The game works like this: The leader of the pack sees a bear and if it's confirmed by at least one other person, then the leader goes to the back of the pack and the next person comes to the front. And so on. We do this through 4 bears and Neil is leading and calls out on the CB, "Fox on the left!" with great excitement in his voice. The three of us don't see the fox, but we see 3 magnificant large blonde grizzly bears standing on their haunches looking at us. And Neil didn't even see them. And I was so excited to see them, I forgot to take a picture.

We rode on up the Cassiar and the scenery is simply breath taking and large. The following picture doesn't begin to do it justice.

We made a number of stops along the way and one of the best was at Jade City where we really enjoyed ourselves.

Welcome to the Yukon:

More proof 60th parallel:

We have made Watson Lake and found a great campground at Nugget City, enjoyed a sumptuous ribeye steak dinner at the restaurant at camp and then headed into Watson Lake to see the Signpost Forest and refuel for our morning 300 mile ride to Skagway to catch the ferry to Haines.

Dinner:

At the SignPost Forest:

With my Sidestandup.com shirt on:

Seattle sign:

Well, it's after 11 and helmet time is 6am, so I need to sign off for today. Hopefully, I can get an internet connection tomorrow.

Day 4 - Our Off Day

2009-06-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

Today was our off day and we used it to go bear searching up on the Cassiar Highway. We scored some 6 bears.

At the awards presentation, Tom won a set of custom gloves and we had a good time chatting with folks at the dinner and time afterwards at the motel.

More later.

Day 3 - Arrival in Hyder

2009-06-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

I've not had good internet connections for a few days, so this is just a placeholder for me to fill in the details later. Suffice it to say, the ride into Hyder was spectacular.

Here's a shot from Bear Glacier about 25 miles from Hyder.

We arrived in Stewart, BC around 2pm on Friday, checked into the Hotel, and met a bunch of people. Then we rode the 4 miles to HYDER, AK

We went out to the pier and took a group photo (at least a partial one).

We had a nice seafood dinner, met people from around the US & Canada (several of whom I had met electronically over the internet).

Then we went out to Fish Creek bear viewing area and tried to find a bear. SCORE!

Back to the motel (King Edward in Stewart, BC which is 4 miles from Hyder.

Then to bed.

End of Day 2 - Near Burns Lake

2009-06-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Day 2 ended with a great little campsite at the Beaver Point Resort which is 10 miles down a country road outside of Burns Lake, BC. We were looking for a campground with WIFI, a shower, and camping. A local pointed us down the road about 3 miles which turned out to be 10 miles. But it's a fabulous location with no road noise.

The day started with a departure from Cache Creek at 7:40am and we put on some 440 miles through a number of construction sites. We took lunch at a fish & chips place (Wee Chippees) in Quesnel. We all had the haddock special which was very good.

After lunch the ride for the rest of the day was very warm again with tempertures hitting about 84f. Outside of Prince George we saw our first MOOSE sign and stopped for a Kodak moment. About 60 or so miles from our final destination we stopped at Frazier Lake for a dinner at Subway. We met some Alberta riders who were heading for HYDERSEEK.

Tomorrow, we have only less than 300 miles. We are projecting a 6am departure so we have time for lot of picture taking.

Critter Spottings: One Eagle; total spottings so far this trip = 3

BTW, the sun is still up high in the sky at 8:20pm as I post this. And the 4 Geeks are all on their computers and WIFI fighting very thick mosquitos.

End of Day 1 - Cache Creek

2009-06-03T23:04:00.000-07:00

We ended day 1 at the Brookside RV Park in Cache Creek with campsites, pool, WIFI, and showers - all for $17ea Canadian (Canadian money is almost par with US$). We elected to cook at the park and Neil had Dinty Moore Stew, Tim2 had a dried camping meal that he reconstituted with water, and Tom & Tim enjoyed Chicken ala King (another camping meal) which was actually quite good.

The ride up was incredibly scenic and BC99 is a motorcyclist's dream. It follows the fjord for a long while. Eventually we headed up and over a very scenic pass and along the way near Pemberton we encountered some very dense and dangerous tar snakes. One simply couldn't avoid them and the m/c tires really slipped on them.

Temperatures were consistently in the high 80's farenheit which is very hot for this part of the world. I believe the high was 92f. We were in our vented clothing and took numerous stops for fluids. Who would have thought it to be this warm this far north?

We saw one very ugly deer. It was black and brown mottled kinda like an Australian shepherd dog. 3/4 saw it. Fortunately it stayed on the shoulder of the road. Our critter sighting rules are that two Amigos have to see a critter and since Neil & Tim2 saw the squirrel (Neil just missed hitting it). So we have tally of 2 for day 1.

The SPOT tracking seems to be doing well. It will cut out in the mountains and we do make U-turns. So don't be alarmed if there's no signal for a while or we seem to be backtracking.

Our plan for tomorrow is to depart around 7am and go as far as New Hazelton and camp in that area.

Stay tuned.

2009-06-03T10:00:00.001-07:00

At the border at Blaine ready to cross into Canada. 75 degrees F. Cellphone off now.

We're Off

2009-06-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

All the planning is complete. Packing lists have been checked and triple checked. Electrical gremlins have been sorted out. In about 20 minutes I leave to meet up with the other 3 Amigos on Mercer Island for a starting photograph. The goal for today is Williams Lake, British Columbia some 400 plus miles north of Seattle.

Now would be the time to subscribe to the blog using your favorite RSS reader.

Until later,

Tim

SPOT Tracking of HYDERSEEK 2009

2009-05-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

If you want to follow our travels, go to the following link and save it as a favorite. SPOT will track us every 10 minutes and send a message.

http://jasonjonas.org/spot/tripViewer.do?id=1617

You can then zoom in using Google Earth (where that area has been reduced to pictures)

Enjoy.

Tim

Trip Prelude - Hyderseek

2009-05-13T22:22:00.000-07:00

Since 1998 a group of long distance riders have marked the conclusion of a 49 state motorcycle ride by gathering in Hyder, Alaska called Hyderseek for a little celebration of completion of the event. If you would like more information about the event, go to: http://ronayres.com/Hyder2009/HyderSeek.aspx

Since I was born in Alaska, I thought that this year would be a good year to pay a visit to my native state which is celebrating it's 50th year of statehood. What's a better excuse to do a 5,000 mile motorcycle ride!! So I approached 3 friends about joining me on the ride and all enthusiastically agreed to come. So we paid our registration fees and began planning.

Here's a little background on our small group of riders who became good friends and riding buddies through our local Gold Wing Road Riders Association group, Washington Chapter A in Seattle:

Tim (that's me) is a CPA who runs the accounting department for a major real estate franchising firm in Seattle. He's only been riding since 2002 but has logged well over 100k miles. I'll be riding an '03 Red Gold Wing GL1800A.

Tim2 is an executive with a large software company in Redmond, WA. Tim's been riding for many, many years and will be on a '03 Yellow Gold Wing GL1800.

Neil is a retired engineer in Arizona and rides a '02 Yellow Gold Wing GL1800 with over 200,000 miles on the odometer. Neil's also been riding for many, many years and has ridden to Alaska many times. Neil's our chief route planner.

Tom is an attorney who is in private family law practice in Kent and rides a '95 Red GL1500 SE with over 125,000 miles on it. Tom, too, has been riding for many, many years.

Our general plan is to take 3 days to ride the 1,000 miles from Seattle, WA to Hyder, AK, spend 2 days in the Hyder area, and then ride north through BC to Watson Lake, west to Skagway, ferry down to Haines and then ride back up through Alaska and back to Watson Lake. We'll then head for Ft. Nelson, BC, take a 400 mile detour up to Ft. Laird, NW Territories, and then head home.

We'll be doing a combination of motelling and camping and this blog will be updated as we have access to an internet connection.

You'll be able to track our travels using a satellite tracking device that will be sending a periodic signal which will be plotted on a Google Map. I'll provide the link just before we leave. I think you'll find it pretty nifty to be able to follow us.

We also hope to do a live interview on a motorcycle oriented internet based radio program located at www.sidestandup.com on a Tuesday night during the trip, again assuming we have an internet connection. More details will also be posted later on this aspect of the trip.

Come join us as we share our most excellent adventure. Feel free to post questions.